Rigging tripod or A frame

[27RMT0N]

I think it is well worth the money. Ergonomically, you can set the winch at the exact right height you want to be using it at, as opposed to just using the strap and having the winch laying on the ground. That alone is worth it to me if you are doing more than one or two pulls. The tiny bit of height advantage also helps more than you might think. As far as protecting the tree, it seems to do just fine, as good or better than a GRCS tree mount. Our firs have very tough bark so there isn't too much to worry about, but something else to think about is that in most cases the force will be a straight pull, transferring a lot of the force onto the wide strap that wraps around the trunk (as opposed to say, negative rigging on a GRCS which wants to pull upward and potentially slip). If you ever needed/wanted even more protection, you could add a carpet scrap under the strap as well.

Something else I really like is using the tree mount in combination with the vertical-pull winch support ( https://www.portablewinch.com/collections/all/products/vertical-pull-winch-support ) since that allows you to easily turn the winch around and hang a block in the same tree you are mounting the winch to. And as you know, that added height really improves pulling ability. The only downside, is it is a bit sketchy getting the rope around the drum, watch your fingers....





If you haven't watched their videos, this shows and explains a lot. And they have a lot of new winch models out since I bought mine.

 

[Fivepoints]

I kept thinking about something similar to get stuff over fences. I ended us building a boom for our mini instead. It could easily be setup with a winch mount.

We have found our mini ex very useful for picking stuff over a fence. It works pretty well for out of ditches etc. Ours is an 8k unit. So it'll pick the boom up pretty high. Probably 15 ft up. We have a shackle mount welded on the back of our bucket to attach to. Sometimes we hang a block and use our mini skid to pull rope. It works well as long as the pieces aren't to heavy.

 

[southsoundtree]

@Fivepoints

Boom pic please.

 

[dspacio]

I can't quite read everything going on in this photo, I think this is a form of Gin Pole from the old family photo archives..
sounds like a different scale from what you are designing but maybe some ideas from the photo.



also, just a funny story I heard recently;
my Uncle Clayton was hauling lumber up a hill for building a cabin somewhere in California. He put the family Station Wagon (maybe a Chevy) up on a jack, and attached this special rim, he welded two rims together, so the one extending beyond the car could be used to haul the logs uphill by a redirect up top...
made me feel a bit reassured by running my work and tools out of a volvo wagon.

 

[southsoundtree]

My neighbor, retired career pnw gypo logger had a DF employee one time before tower logging took off. The only tree left standing on the mountain top was at the landing... a spar tree. DF felled it.

Another logger, old guy, with the help of people and machines, stood the 130' spar pole back up, guyed it out, and rigged it himself.








What are you up to on this, @evo ?

 

[Fivepoints]

@Fivepoints

Boom pic please.

Its a fairly typical tree boom for a mini skid. I made ours to take a d shackle. Makes using short crabe slings easier. Never even taken a picture of it. Sometimes we use it three times in a week and sometimes it rides on the trailer for months without us touching it.

 

[evo]

My neighbor, retired career pnw gypo logger had a DF employee one time before tower logging took off. The only tree left standing on the mountain top was at the landing... a spar tree. DF felled it.

Another logger, old guy, with the help of people and machines, stood the 130' spar pole back up, guyed it out, and rigged it himself.








What are you up to on this, @evo ?

Mostly just a high point for rigging (raising loads) off bluffs. Small loads of about 1k or less. Something collapsible

 

[SeanRuel]

Rigging for Trails

Jed Talbot is one of the nation's leading instructors for teaching the fundamentals of trail based rigging. He is a co-author of the United States Forest Service manual titled "Principles of Backcountry Rigging” - the first published resource on the subject. The manual is available as a free...

www.obptrailworks.com

First picture has a pretty intriguing tripod Setup with adjustable legs

 

[27RMT0N]

Rigging for Trails

Jed Talbot is one of the nation's leading instructors for teaching the fundamentals of trail based rigging. He is a co-author of the United States Forest Service manual titled "Principles of Backcountry Rigging” - the first published resource on the subject. The manual is available as a free...

www.obptrailworks.com

First picture has a pretty intriguing tripod Setup with adjustable legs

Some very impressive rigging in those photos. Although it's not explicitly targeted towards us Tree guys, I imagine one of their classes would be very valuable.